Chapter Forty-Eight

A/N: Dedicated to the wonderful kath112 for the ship name 😜😄❤️

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"What do you mean 'eliminate her main threat'?" asked Skye, clearly upset. I mean, I couldn't blame her. Lorelei was mind controlling Grant into betraying all of us.

"I mean, he's going to do whatever it takes to keep us out of her way. Anything from locking us in to..." I couldn't finish the thought. I wanted to believe that Grant was strong enough to break free of Lorelei if he were told to kill me, but based on what I'd heard from Sif, May, and Coulson, that was impossible.

"Let me try to get through the doors," I said, starting to sit up.

"No! First of all, you need to save your strength, just in case," started Simmons. "And second, none of us are going to be able to destroy the door to get out. We have to out-think them instead of out-fight them."

I conceded and leaned back against the bed. We ended up with Simmons grabbing a fire extinguisher and waiting by the door to clock anyone who tried to come in. I know, I know, it wasn't a great plan, but for right now, it was the best we had.

Unfortunately, Phil was the first one through the door.

Fortunately, his reflexes were fast enough to keep Simmons from bashing his head in.

Phil had us let Sif in (she'd gone out the airlock), and then he and Simmons went to deal with Fitz, who was also under Lorelei's spell.

"Simmons is gone," I remarked.

"Yeah. What are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking I need to go get Grant."

"You really shouldn't. Simmons is right, we're not even close to fighting shape yet."

"Yeah, I agree."

"You're going anyway, aren't you?"

"Yup."

I sprang out of bed, determined to sneak away before Simmons got back. I was terrified of what I might find when I saw Grant again, but there was no way I was going to sit by and do nothing when I could help save him. He was right here on the plane, and I couldn't be on the sidelines any longer.

I sprinted upstairs, and found the fighting already over. May was in position to destroy Grant, but he looked to be back to normal. I breathed a quiet sigh of relief. I didn't have to see Grant under Lorelei's control.

"I'm back," said Grant, looking at May and trying to convince her. Sif was leading Lorelei into the room, the collar newly around her neck.

"He speaks the truth," announced Sif. Grant turned to smile at May, and she punched him in the face. Hard.

My jaw dropped and my eyebrows shot up. I started walking towards the group right before May left.

"Good to know," she said, staring Grant down before turning and walking away.

"What the heck did you do to deserve that?" I asked, pulling Grant into a side hug.

"Slater," he sighed, making it a full hug. He didn't answer my question, just buried his face in my hair. We stood there for a couple minutes, just being together.

Finally, he pulled back and held me at arm's length, giving me the stink eye.

"Are you supposed to be out of bed?"

"Ugh. Grant." I rolled my eyes and leaned back into his chest. It was my turn to ignore a question.

"C'mon," he said, starting to walk but still keeping one arm around me. "Let's get you back in bed before Simmons loses her mind."

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A week later, I was actually allowed out of bed. True, Simmons hadn't cleared me for field work, but who cares? I could walk around the plane!

I wanted to start getting back in shape right away, but I was very limited in what I could do. I could walk, and maybe jog a little bit, but otherwise Simmons said I was still sidelined. I'd tried to convince Grant to help me dust off my fighting skills, but he was almost stricter than Simmons.

The one bright side, through, was that when Coulson called a high-level meeting, I was actually allowed to attend.

We were finally closing in on the clairvoyant, and now Phil had come up with a plan to find him, once and for all. The Agency's top brass (short of Fury, of course) were coming to the plane to hear the plan and put it into action, and that included John Garrett (who I was excited to see) and Victoria Hand (who I hated even when she wasn't next to me).

Oh well. I could focus on my team, Garrett, and Tripp, and it'd be like Hand wasn't even there.

I was chilling out in my quarters, reading a book, when I felt the plane touch down. We were landing on an aircraft carrier to pick everybody up, and I was guessing we'd arrived.

I marked my page and headed out to the living room/situation room, where I assumed everyone would be meeting.

"Agent Slater!" Garrett was in the living room, giving me a big smile. Grant stood next to him, looking a little more tense than usual.

"Hi!" I called, giving him a hello hug. "I heard you went down with Grant, Coulson, and Fitz to find that drug that saved me. Thank you."

"Sure thing. I'm glad you made it. Now we're gonna get the bastard that ordered you shot in the first place."

I smiled, but I swear I saw Grant clench his fists. I didn't say anything, but I stood a little closer to him, hoping it might help calm him down. I made a mental note to ask him what was wrong.

Before we could continue (and before Hand could maker herself annoying), May came in.

"Cruising altitude reached," she announced. That was the signal to start the meeting.

Phil explained the plan to everyone, and then it was time to go get Skye. She was going to become an official SHIELD agent today!

I followed Grant down the hall to get her, but he stopped short to look at me.

"Slater, what are you doing?" he asked.

"What does it look like? I'm coming with you to get Skye!"

"You can't."

"Why not?" I exclaimed, feeling a little outraged.

"Because you're smiling like crazy! You have no poker face for things like this, and you're going to ruin the surprise."

"I will not! I'm a spy!"

"Slater. Do you honestly believe you can wipe the smile off your face right now and keep it off long enough to tell her to come upstairs?"

"Yes..." Grant raised one eyebrow and I knew I wasn't getting away with this lie. "Ugh, fine. I'll go back upstairs."

Grant nodded and continued down to the lab. I sighed and headed back into the room with everyone else.

"Did you find Skye?" Phil asked.

"No, Grant's going to get her. I came back up because apparently the grin on my face was going to ruin the surprise. I mean, Grant probably wasn't wrong, but still."

Phil smiled and Garrett leaned towards him.

"When are those two finally going to get together?" he asked in a really bad stage whisper.

"Agent Garrett!" I yelled, smacking his arm.

"What? I didn't say anything, did I Phil?" Then, in another stage whisper: "Grammy is my oh-tee-pee."

I smacked my forehead and rolled my eyes. This was hopeless.

Before I had to endure anymore teasing, Grant came back upstairs.

"Why are you all red?" he asked, leaning in to whisper so that only I could hear him.

"You don't want to know."

He gave me a look that left me confident he was gonna ask about it later, but once again I was saved from more immediate embarrassment, this time by Skye.

Phil told her the plan, and she actually improved on the initial idea. She was going to make a great SHIELD agent.

Apparently I had started grinning despite myself, because Grant elbowed me in the side. I was silently praying that Phil would tell her soon, because I was practically bursting with excitement.

"One question," started Skye, once she'd finished laying out her brilliant addition to the plan. "How am I supposed to access all the classified files without someone else in the room? I don't have clearance."

"Now you do," said Phil, pulling out a badge. "Welcome to SHIELD Skye."

She looked down at her new badge in awe, then turned to where Grant and I were standing.

"Congratulations!" I squealed, giving her a big hug. May brought FitzSimmons up and everyone gave her their own, slightly more restrained versions of congratulations, before Phil declared it was time to get back to work.

"Thank you guys," Skye said once most of the others had left.

"Dude, you so deserve this. Meet me down by the cargo containers when you get a chance, okay?" I said. Skye nodded and I gave her another hug, then headed off to set up a surprise. When I'd become an official agent, the only thing I'd wanted to do was unlock something with my new clearance. I thought Skye might feel the same way, so I was going to put a clearance lock on one of the containers.

Maybe a little stupid, and I'm sure Grant would've rolled his eyes, but I thought it was a good idea.

A few minutes after I'd finished with the lock, Skye came down.

"Hey," I greeted. "How does it feel to be a newly minted agent?"

"Pretty awesome."

"I know right? Okay, so I don't know about you, but when I first became an official agent, ALL I wanted to do was unlock something with my new clearance."

"Yeah, I know what you mean. I've been waiting for a door or something but nothing's really locked on the plane."

"This is! I know it doesn't really count, but I came down and put a level 1 lock on this cargo door. Now, no one that isn't a SHIELD agent can get in."

Skye smiled. "Well then, I guess it's a good thing I'm officially a SHIELD agent."

She pulled out her badge and swiped it across my new lock, and the door slid open.

"Okay, that actually felt pretty cool," she said as a grin slowly grew across her face.

"I know right? Everything just feels so much more official once you've used your badge for something."

"It really does! Thanks Samantha."

"Anytime Skye," I said, giving her a big smile. "Now let's go back upstairs, you've got some official SHIELD agent duties to tend to."

We started walking towards the lab, but before we got all the way there, I heard a grunt come from the way we came. It sounded like Grant.

"What was that?" asked Skye.

"I don't know, but I better go check on him. I'll meet you upstairs."

Skye nodded, and I headed back towards the storage pod. When I turned the corner, I found Grant rubbing his forehead.

"What happened?" I asked.

"I tried to open the door, but it was locked. You wouldn't know anything about that, would you?"

"I locked it so Skye could unlock something with her badge. Are you saying you ran headfirst into the door?"

"Yes, thanks to you."

"So you didn't stop when the door wasn't opening?" I asked, trying to hold back a laugh. Grant just glared at me. "Okay, well, I'm definitely going to have to find that on the security cams. But hey, I wanted to ask you, why did you look so tense earlier when Garrett came?"

"It was nothing," said Grant, clearly lying.

"Okay, I've known you long enough to see through your BS. What's up?"

"I don't know, why were you so red earlier when I came back after getting Skye?"

Damn. He got me.

"Okay, okay, fine. We'll both let it drop. Agreed?"

"Agreed."

"Good. Now let's go back upstairs so I can track down the footage of you smacking your head."

"We can add it to the footage of you falling over in training."

"Whatever," I said, rolling my eyes. Then, as we started down the hallway, I added in a whisper: "Oompa, loompa, doompaty doo."

Grant had his arm around my shoulder, and I felt him tighten his grip considerably. I only laughed.