Caroline Stark

Chapter 53

"Time to go Agents!" I say, bursting into the room behind May and Ward. I kick down a guy who ran at me, and melt off Coulson's handcuffs. We run through the underground facility to the escape route. 

"I was wondering what you guys had been up to." says Coulson as we run past unconscious Russian soldiers. 

May twists open the escape hatch and I follow Ward up into the snowy Siberian air. I help Coulson p next, then we all climb onto the sled. 

"Where are the dogs?" asks Agent Shaw. 

"Don't be ridiculous." says Coulson. The ropes tied to the sled tighten, and we're quickly pulled to the plane. 

Fits helps me off the sled, and I lead Agent Shaw to the lab. 

"Dr. Simmons is going to take it from here, because I really want nothing to do with this." I say. I go upstairs and join Fitz and Skye in the living area. Fitz hands me a coffee and I drink it uncomfortably. 

"How do you think he got it up his nose?" I ask them. 

Skye shudders. "Don't even talk about it."

"Well, he had to have shoved it up there himself." says Fitz. "Do you think it hurt?"

"What part of Don't even talk about it don't you understand?" asks Skye. 

We're quiet for a minute. I grab a straw wrapper from off of the counter and roll it up into a ball. 

"Hey Skye." i say. She turns to look at me. I pretend to shove the paper ball up my nose. I jump up and start freaking out because it actually went up my nose. "Help!" I yell. 

I cough, and the paper ball flies into Skye's coffee. 

"Okay, yuck." she says, getting up to dump out her coffee. 

Fitz is cracking up. I slap his arm. "Don't laugh at me. I almost died."

"Yeah, okay." he says sarcastically before cracking up again. I roll my eyes. 

Skye comes back, her coffee mysteriously gone. "You suck." she says to me. 

Coulson walks into the room. 

"Ah, good. Done with that paranasal extraction nonsense." says Fitz, putting down his cup. "Do you need me to analyze the data?"

"That won't be necessary." replies Coulson. 

"If it's encrypted, I can mine the chip for him." offers SKye. 

"I'm good." replies Coulson. 

"I can do either of those things once you wash it." I offer.

"I'm afraid this mission is classified. Clearance level eight." says Coulson. 

I groan. "Are you kidding me." 

"Uh, what?" asks Skye "He can just shut us out of the process like that?"

"Well, he did say the mission is level eight." says Fitz. 

"And we're not." I say in annoyance. "So we can't know about it."

"Right but this is normally the part where we all stand around the holocom and we learn about stuff." says Skye hopefully. "I mean, aren't we all on the same team?"

"No need to get started on one of your socialist riffs." says Fitz. 

May chuckles. 

"S.H.I.E.L.D.'s whole infrastructure is based on the hierarchy and compartmentalization of information." says Simmons. 

"Every Agent can't know the intel on every mission." explains Ward. 

"No one can spill all the secrets because no one knows them all." I add annoyedly. 

"Okay, fine, but if I just fought my way out of an underground Siberian prison, I'd like to know why." says Skye. 

"Believe me, so would I." I mutter, getting up.  

"Coulson's got you used to the plane, how we do missions here." says May. "The hub, is different."

"Oh, we're going to the Hub?" I ask in excitement. 

May nods. 

 I excitedly walk off to text my friends at the hub. 

"The hub? What's the hub?" Skye calls after me. 

+ Wouldn't it be awesome if Fitz got to meet Tony Stark? It's a new dream of mine.