68. Dealing with problems

"We don't know what we're dealing with here," Coulson explained to Skye as he quarantined her in her old bedroom. Mac was being quarantined in the room once assigned to Fitz. "So until Jemma can run some tests and clear you for duty, we need to take precautions."

"What about Grant? Where is he?" asked Skye

"He is trying to help Kara Palmas the same way we helped him" Coulson said after which he left Skye there.

Skye understood at once what Coulson was talking about as Grant did say that he wanted to help her but she couldn't help but curse him as well as he left her alone to deal with the problems here.

Hydra themselves feel like they have been heavily defeated since Coulson killed their North American commander, Daniel Whitehall. In a meeting with several high level Hydra operatives, Dr. List, a representative of Hydra's leader Baron von Strucker, explains that whoever can take out S.H.I.E.L.D. for good will get Whitehall's position, setting up a power struggle between the other members.

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Since the San Juan incident, Grant has been helping Kara coming to terms with her freedom but staying with a burnt face wasn't good for her so he was searching for the doctor who could help her with it.

While he was helping Kara, Grant didn't forget to try to find out about his new power but it's much harder than he thought he didn't even know how to find what it is though he did create a barrier of some kind around himself once but he doesn't have control over it and he doesn't know if that's all he could do or is there something else. Grant want's to hit his past self who wasn't an active otaku and didn't watch the anime from which he got this power. Though he was training with his new powers he didn't forget to call Fitz and talk with him.

On the second day after the mission Grant called Fitz the moment he got the chance and told him about the incident and asked him to change Skye's results as the chances of it coming off were high at first Fitz didn't understood why he has to do that but after listening to Grant understood that if he didn't do it than Skye may be ostracized by others and even be locked because of the high tension that everyone was dealing with.

In the alien city, Jemma Simmons is preparing to flood it to prevent anyone else entering it, but not before Raina, who was changed in the temple like Skye, crawls out of the rubble left by an earthquake and kills several agents. Raina's appearance is now monstrous – she is covered in thorns and spikes. Escaping the tunnels, Raina tracks down Skye's father, Cal, and demands he fix her. He reminds her that she got what she wanted, and tells her that if she can not live with who she has become, then she should not.

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While Grant was free from SHIELD scrutiny it wasn't so for Skye as she was quarantined right after returning to base. She even lost it after Bobbi kindly brought a quarantine survival kit.

The next day dragged as it became evident that they weren't going to clear medical easily. Of course, part of the problem was that the team was too busy arguing and going after Hydra to work on getting them out of her imprisonment. They were nice enough to do some of their planning in front of the quarantine room so that Skye could participate but she felt curiously uninterested. While she was glad that SHIELD was going to try and cut off all of Hydra's heads, she was much more interested in figuring out what was happening to her. She hasn't been able calm herself down when Jemma came in with her ridiculous ranting about alien biology being a plague making her lose her composure but thankfully nothing major happened.

"Something wrong?" Jemma asked, startling Skye. She must've entered the room while Skye was taking deep breaths and controlling herself "You look tense."

"No, nothing's wrong," Skye muttered looking everywhere other than where Jemma was, "We just want to get out of here."

"Well then, it's good that your long wait is over," Fitz said, entering the lab with a medical tablet in his hands. Jemma whirled to face him which was just as well since Skye looked utterly surprised as well. "I was anxious to double-check the results," Fitz told Jemma. He handed the tablet to her so she could see for herself. "Skye's DNA is an exact match to what it was before. They're clear." Fitz looked back over at Skye, beaming at her, clearly pleased with himself.

Jemma sighed in relief, then lit up the room with her smile. "Thank God."

Fitz's smile dimmed as he noted Skye's expression. He glanced over at Jemma. "Um Skye, is your bunk made?"

"What umm... no?" stated Skye hesitantly

Fitz put his hands on his hips. "Uh, well, maybe you could get him some clean sheets," he said to Jemma. She looked up at him, surprised. "They should probably sleep."

Jemma turned back to Skye, smiling widely again. "Yes. You both deserve a good night's rest."

"Yeah, I mean I…" Fitz said hesitantly, gesturing widely with his hands, "and I would do it but the last time I was there, there were lots of ladies' things thrown about and there are just some things you don't want to know about your friends."

"Okay," Jemma replied, rushing away, a big smile still in place.

Once she was gone, Skye glanced at Fitz who opened the contamination door and walked in hugging Skye.

"Grant called me and told me what happened and asked me to switch your blood results with your old sample as he was sure that they would be different" explained Fitz after letting go of Skye.

"The new samples are different?" Skye asked.

"Drastically. But until everyone around here calms down, I don't think we should tell anybody. What with the way Simmons is acting. For now, we should just keep it between us," Fitz said, waving his hand to include the three of them. "Keep you safe until we figure it out, OK?"

Skye nodded, a single tear rolling down her cheek almost falling into an embrace with Fitz, sobbing on his shoulder.

"It's OK," Fitz told Skye, gently petting her hair.

"This is all my fault," she sobbed. "I could've stopped her. I let this happen and I'm so sorry."

"No, it's OK," Fitz murmured.

"No, everything's my fault." Skye paused, leaning back a bit from Fitz's shoulder. "Jemma's right. There's something very wrong with me, with us."

"No," Fitz said immediately. "You're just different now." He paused, letting what he said sink in. "You're just different now and there's nothing wrong with that."