Chapter Thrity-Eight

Grant and I held up our hands in surrender, and the soldiers escorted us to the cargo hold. They tied everybody's hands to the ramp that went down if the cargo hold was opened, except Phil, who they kept on the second floor.

I was on one end of the line, next to Grant, and May was still unconscious on the other end, next to Skye.

"This is my fault," muttered Fitz after a few minutes of silence, "I should have learned Kung Fu."

I shook my head and opened my mouth to reassure him, but before I could everyone decided to take a moment to blame themselves. I closed my eyes and sighed. I was getting tired of everyone talking over each other.

Then, the conversation turned to May. Apparently FitzSimmons didn't realize that she was the same legendary Specialist badass that all the new agents told stories about. Grant explained just in time for May to wake up.

She asked FitzSimmons for a solution, but they didn't have one yet.

"It's hard to concentrate in these intense situations," explained Fitz.

"Hey. Don't freeze up," coached Grant. I felt my heart soar. I was so proud of him for being so kind and mentor-ish! "Take a breath. You don't need to come up with the whole solution. Just part of it. Right?"

He leaned forward and directed the last question towards Skye, and I didn't miss the way he was looking at her. I felt my stomach clench.

I tried to focus. I had to! My team was counting on me! I couldn't get distracted so easily. What the hell was wrong with me?

While I was wrestling with myself, the rest of the team managed to come up with a plan. We were taking back the plane, and I needed to have my wits about me. May revved the engine of the SHIELD car, ramming open the lab doors to get us started.

No turning back now.

I helped Grant gather ropes and belaying clips, then we secured the rest of the team.

"Let me do yours," said Grant, wrapping the rope around my waist and securing it. I did the same for him, but I had to turn away as I felt a blush rising to my cheeks. While everyone else put the finishing touches on our plan, I ducked around a corner to get a hold of myself.

I smacked my own forehead.

"Snap out of it Slater!" I whisper-yelled to myself. This was completely unacceptable, and if I couldn't focus, I might get one of my teammates hurt. I took a deep breath, and then went back into the lab. We were about to blow a hole in our plane, and I couldn't afford to be distracted.

I lined up with the rest of the team, next to Grant, and we all braced for the coming impact. Fitz triggered the device we'd been sent to retrieve, and the doors to the lounge unlocked.

"Samantha and I will take care of the soldiers," said Grant, "You guys get to the 0-8-4."

"And Coulson?" asked Fitz.

Grant paused. "Let's hope he can handle himself."

The minute we opened the door to the lounge, it was chaos. The wind was pulling us towards the massive hole in the plane, but we managed to keep from flying out.

Grant and I were moving in first, but one of the soldiers starting firing.

"Get back!" ordered Grant, talking to the rest of the team. He and I ducked behind the couch, and Grant popped up to deal with the shooter while I walked around to meet a second hostile.

I heard indistinct shouting all around me, but I was laser focused on the guy in front of me. He was much bigger than I was, and since I couldn't dart around like I normally did without flying out of the plane, I was going to have a hard time beating him.

I ducked his first few punches, then landed a few of my own, but I just didn't have the brute strength to knock him out with a punch. I tried to gauge how much I could move without losing my balance, but I didn't want to take too many chances.

On the next punch I caught the guy's wrist and twisted it behind his back, slamming him head-first into the nearest wall. He was dazed, but he still managed to turn around and literally throw me. I went flying towards the hole in the plane, hitting another body as I went, and I swear my life flashed before my eyes.

Instead of flying through open blue skies to my death, however, I hit something yellow and bouncy instead before falling to the ground. I looked around and came face to face with Grant (apparently he'd been the body I'd collided with), both of us laying in front of one of the plane's safety rafts and breathing hard.

I put my head on his shoulder, letting out a relieved laugh.

"Day one with you people and we've already moved up to 179," I said.

Grant also let out a relieved laugh, leaning back against the emergency raft and shaking his head, "Yeah, this was certainly a bonding experience."

I looked up at him and grinned. Grant was using the same phrase I had when we were first starting out as a team. He smiled back at me, and I felt my heart soar.

Phil and Skye came over, Phil helping me up while Skye offered her hand to Grant. I took a deep breath, refusing to get all weird in front of the whole team, and we all staggered over to the bar.

"No other way in huh?" asked Phil, pulling out a broken glass, "I was just starting to warm up to this place."

"The 0-8-4 is cooling and stable," announced Fitz, "But we should call HQ and get it to the Slingshot as soon as possible."

Phil nodded, and I collapsed into the nearest chair. All of us were going to need some time to recover from that head-rush.

****************

Once we landed at the Slingshot project headquarters, we all sat on the plane's tailgate and shared a beer together as we sent off the rocket. For once, we were all together, not arguing over one another, just enjoying being a team.

The plane was going to take some time to be fixed, but by some miracle, our bunks were still okay. Since the Slingshot was literally in the middle of nowhere, we'd be staying on the Bus to sleep.

I decided to go to bed a little early, and to my surprise, Grant was sitting at the small table outside our rooms, looking down at a yellow legal pad.

"Hey," I said, flopping down next to him. I felt normal, which was a relief. Maybe the whole thing earlier had been a fluke after all.

"Hey," he responded, not looking up from the legal pad.

"Whatcha workin' on?" I asked, leaning over his shoulder to get a better look.

"Just doing a little planning. May and I were talking and I'm going to step up as Skye's SO, and since she hasn't had any academy training, I'm trying to get a list of all the basics I need to teach her."

I froze. It felt like my stomach had literally just dropped out of my body, and I wanted to puke.

"Cool," I said, with a forced calm that I only managed because I'd been practicing for years.

"Yeah... Hey, would you look over my list in the morning and tell me if I missed anything you can think of?"

"Sure thing," I said, again forcing my usual happy tone, "Right now I'm exhausted though, so I'm going to bed."

"Alright wimp. See you in the morning."

"See you." I got up and walked stiffly to my room. Grant hadn't looked up once, thank God, or else he definitely would've been able to read the distress on my face.

I face planted onto my pillow and tried to keep from screaming, since Grant was right outside my door. Why was I feeling so jealous? He was my best friend, shouldn't I feel happy for him? He used to be Mr. Asocial, but now he was making new friends and new connections.

But I didn't feel happy at all. Grant was my SO, it had been the two of us against the world since I graduated from the academy, but now he was going to be Skye's SO too. Since we were all on the same team I assumed he'd be training her on the plane in between missions, but what if that wasn't the plan?

What if they left together like Grant and I had?

I wouldn't be able to stand it. Grant and I were always together and we just got back together after spending almost a month apart. I didn't want anything to change that.

I squeezed my eyes shut and felt a few tears fall onto the pillow.

No, Grant wouldn't leave. He'd stay here, and everything would be okay.  We'd still be close friends, we'd still spend time together. And Skye was a cool person, I wouldn't mind spending time with her too.

I took a deep breath. Grant was my best friend. Everything would be okay. He would train Skye, and I would be fine with it, and we'd all be happy.

I started drifting off to sleep, exhausted from the day's events. I passed out cold, chanting over and over Grant is my best friend. Everything will be okay, hoping that repeating it like a mantra would make it true.