5685/Changeling/Leviathan: A Chance to Talk

Changeling/Leviathan: A Chance to Talk
Date of Scene:	30 October 2018
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	Clint and Skye talk about Skye's changes, her rescue, Karl and plans for the future. Oh, and did someone mention a promotion?
Cast of Characters:	Hawkeye (Barton), Quake
Tinyplot:	Changeling
Tinyplot2:	Leviathan

---

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Once he'd done his share of rest and recovery Clint was given a green light to venture out of the Triskelion as long as he took his detail with him, Agents Lammie and Moran, or as Clint called them Heckle and Jeckle. He was an Avenger damn it! If there was any danger he'd end up protecting them!

Or at least that was his theory, one that the brass didn't share.

However whatever doubts he had about their ability to protect him from a raging Cal, or robot Karl, they were great at fetch and carry. So, they end up holding his bags as he returns to their apartment in the Trisk from the outside world.

Clint stops at the door, "Great, hand them over," he says of the bags, and the two sixers of frou-frou beer.

They hand them over, or well most of them, Clint stops them after he takes the first sixer from them, "Keep the last one," he says. Always helped to corrupt your protection detial. "I'm staying in tonight."

Then he turns and knocks on the door, "Skye are you decent?" he calls as he steps inside and his detail wanders off with their beer.

Quake has posed:
After May had left, Skye hadn't been able to finish her broth, even though she'd promised too. She'd found herself starting to nod off as the after effects of adrenaline and the past weeks caught up with the fact that she was somewhere safe, with someone she loved. She hadn't even noticed Clint taking the mug away from her, or carrying her to their bedroom and putting her to bed.

the next morning was filled with medical, and then Fury, and by then, Clint had been cleared to go off and get their belongings...

"Of course I'm decent," Skye calls out from the kitchen as she wanders out with a mug filled with what looks suspiciously like cup'o'ramen. She was nearly defiant about it as she comes out into the livingroom. "I know. But I wanted it." It was safe. And home. And reminded her of simpler times before her life got all complicated and she needed that desperately right now. She and her cup'o'ramen found a seat on the couch.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Ooh dear, if only Clint had known. Or you know asked, but he'd meant it as a surprise.

He walks into their apartment not only with their stuff, but a bag from that ramen place with two plastic bowls of fancy take out ramen, plus the beer. He figured it'd cheer her up.

"Hey, I brought some dinner from the outside world," he says. "Also beer." Their last sixer vanished quickly after the stress of the last couple of days. He eyes the cup, and for a moment frowns, "But that works too," he wasn't going to fight it, not over a bowl of ramen. "Want a beer at least?" he offers, leaning over to kiss her briefly before setting bags down.

Quake has posed:
Skye peers over her mug of cup'o'ramen, her look filled with suspicion. "You brought real ramen?" Of course now she's torn, because *real* ramen was awfully darn tasty and really the only value to the mug in her hands was it's familiarity. "I could be hungry enough for both. And a beer."

Because whether she'd admit it or not, she was rather more than fond of the frou-frou beer. After a year, she should be. Even sentimentality couldn't buy that kind of loyalty for something they drank so often.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Clint too had been converted to the frou-frou, he didn't enjoy it ironically any more, he just enjoyed it. "Great.," he smiles divested of their bags of gear then he brings the food and beer to the couch, flopping down on the couch beside her.

Digging into the bag he produces two plastic bowls with plastic lids covered with steam. "I got us a bowl of the Northern Warmer and Chicken Tantan Men," he says. "That last one they said was spicy." He leaves her to decide.

Quake has posed:
"Chicken man is mine," Skye says, snapping up that bowl even before he announces it's spicy. "If you're nice to me I might let you have a bite to taste." She even manages to grin as she says that, even though she's not really feeling a whole lot of positive right now. Her morning in medical had been difficult.

Her gaze falls upon the bags of their belongings. Really the last of the essentials that hadn't moved over with them when her father had first een on the loose and they'd been put under protective custody.

"I guess that's it, huh? We're really stuck here." Because of me, her mind added. "I'm sorry, Hotshot. I never meant for any of this to happen."

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Clint laughs giving up the bowl. "And aren't I always nice?" he teases tossing a plastic fork and a pair of wrapped chopsticks her way. He can tell her heart's not in her humour but his laughter is genuine, he extends it like a lifeline to better times.

He gets his own untensils and then cracks open the bowl of Northern Warmer, and gives it a sniff. "No lie I had my eyes on that one but this smells pretty good, maybe you'll have to be nice to me for a taste." he grins.

A glance is given to the bags where they sit like gravestones for their past life.

"For now," he says. "Once we drag Cal's ass in, find out what's uo with Karl and figure out what happened to you at the lab, we'll get home." It sounded like a long list even to his ears. "And you've got nothing to apologize for. You didn't ask for any of this, it's not your fault your dads obessesed with finding you and Karl is insane robot ghost thing."

He reaches out a hand. "We'll get back home, Keyboard. You have my word."

Quake has posed:
Skye slowly unwraps her chopsticks. "We should get ourselves real ones. Ones to keep." Forgetting for the moment that there are pairs sitting in their utensil drawer at home. Ones, even, that they'd brought back with them from China. "And you always say you like spicy, but you don't."

He's right, her heart isn't in it all, but she's making some effort, which was as good a place as any to start. Right now it was all she had. "Half and half? Trade midway?"

It seemed a fair compromise.

"I talked with Fury." There. That was out there in the open.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
"We have some don't we?" Clint asks unwrapping his as well. "From the trip?" he says as he gets his unwrapped. "But I have to admit, I do love breaking these."

He snaps his nearly cleanly in half.

"And so not true," Clint lies, with a laugh. "Okay, maybe a little true, but it's okay, I'm from the mid-west, we're supposed to be boring," says the ex-carny, Avenger, spy.

Then there it was, he sets down his bowl and picks up the beer, passing one to Skye. "What'd he say?"

Quake has posed:
Skye's answering grin to the Mid-West affirmation is one that reaches her eyes. "Oh, you are not selling me a bridge in Brooklyn. But when it comes to spice, I don't know." He might not be as bad as she was teasing him to be, but the fun was in the teasing, not how technically true it was.

"I like the take out ones, too. They feel like we're sneaking a moment. And Fury said house arrest. Fitzsimmons are reporting to him. Things will be okay. I'm still one of us."

her shoulders rise and fall in a heavy line, not as reassured by that last as she should be.

"We don't even know what I am. How can he say that?" She shoves her chopsticks back into her dish and sets it down, hugging her knees to her chest again. It's fast becoming her posture of choice these past days. "I destroyed that lab, Clint. I'd have destroyed Medical, too. I'm not safe to be around. Or to even be here."

As she speaks, she can feel the tingle in her limbs, and the faint rising buzz of sound around her. Her arms hug her knees tighter, mentally willing herself not to go there - wherever there is - to not give in to the growing well of terror rising in her.

What was it May had said? Breathe. In for a count. Hold. Out for a count. It was hard to force herself to remember that. Harder, still, to do it. But she tried.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
The grin is a welcome sight, "How about a tunnel to Gotham? Any interest?" he teases. "And okay I may not be a big spice guy, but pff, so not that bad," he laughs raising a foot onto the couch to nudge her with.

"Yeah it does, just feels like it's a special occasion, even if our own chopsticks are so much better," he says.

Fury's words are taken in and processed. "You could be from Mars and you'd still be one of us," he says plainly. "Damn, Skye, there are times where I think you're more an agent than I am, it's who you are. Fury's not going to take that from you."

The words were insistent but without rancor.

"I know you did, Skye," he says. "I know you destroyed the lab, that's amazing and terrifying and I can understand why you're scared," he was too. "I can go tell Fury we need to get you off the base, or I can just borow a quinjet and take that vacation to that site out in the woods, where we were going to go shoot. I know we're restricted from leaving the base, but if you're really worried about this, then I say we go."

As she clutches herself harder, Clint backs off, letting her breathe, his hand reached out and rested on one of her knees.

Quake has posed:
His touch upon her knee grounds her, much as the arrow and the badge had kept her herself while she was being tormented by Karl and Hydra.

"I finally found something that was me," she says quietly. "When they had me in the machine, I kept remembering things in my past. It was so weird. I couldn't feel anything, even though I knew they'd beaten me. The only real things were in my hands. I had an arrow, and my badge. They saved me."

Skye looks over and gives him a helpless look. "I don't want to give up who I am in SHIELD, only how can I be that and this monster at the same time?"

Because it's still a monster to her. She saw what she did. No amount of denying it would change that.

"I'd like that. The woods." It wasn't an answer, but at least there she couldn't hurt the people she cared about. Not that she imagined Fury would let her go. Not until they had a better idea of who or what she was. Not just what Karl had done to her. Certainly not while Cal was still on the loose.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Clint keeps that hand and their connection in place.

"A badge an an arrow, huh?" he asks, touched beyond words. Humbled really, to find he ranked up with SHIELD in what made her Skye. His hand sqeezes her knee. "I am glad they saved you Skye. That they couldn't take that from you."

"You're not a monster, Skye, you're different. I know people with terrifying powers, who have done terrible things, but they're still good people because they choose to do good. You're still you Skye, they may have changed what you can do, but they haven't changed who you are. You're Skye Johnson, my Keyboard, and an Agent of SHIELD."

"It should be safe, I can get us a proper security detail if we go officially, and if you want to just go now, we can cloak the flight there, kill the transponder and go off the grid. Whatever keeps you safe and helps you deal with this."

Quake has posed:
One of the hands hugging her knees creeps up and finds itself mating with his hand on her knee.

"Seems kind of stupid now. But yeah. I even had cuts on my hands from it. Not sure how that happened. None of it was real." She shrugs and makes a face. "Everything got fixed when Karl changed me. I had broken ribs and a bunch of other injuries. Now they're gone. I don't know what to think or to feel anymore. Everything is too loud and too real. Things look different. I swear I can feel everything around me. And every time I try to figure it out I feel like I'm being swallowed up whole and am going to fly apart."

His suggestion that they just flee the coop gets a wry laugh. "Because that's going to go over well. Me running away without telling anyone again." Even if he's not quite suggesting that. "Could we? Go, I mean. At least for a bit. Until I stop feeling like.." Like what? She wasn't sure.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Clint shift his hand so his finger can intertwine with hers.

"Doesn't sound stupid to me," Clint says. "I've been through stuff like that, and your mind creates anchor points to defend itself, glad I could be one of yours," he says soberly, before his lips split in a grin. "Unless the arrow was Merida," he says teasing, he squeezes her hand.

"Can't explain the cuts, but hey, whatever happened just glad you got through it okay,"

He nods, "I know what that's like," Clint says of everything being healed. "And I didn't want to alarm you but your scars are missing like mine were," he says, he'd noticed when changing for bed and when Skye had showered before heading to medical in the morning.

He's quiet for the description of what she was feeling. "Jesus, Keyboard, that sounds rough," he says. "And I guess it's too early to know what's trauma and what's whatever happened." Her hand is squeezed again.

"We could do it though. And if they have a problem, tough." Clint's bowl is already set down so it's an easy thing for him to stand. "Want me to go set things up right now?" he asks.

Quake has posed:
"It's terrifying," Skye admits. "I keep thinking maybe I'm back there still. Maybe I'm still stuck in that machine. Only I can't be, right?" Her mind desperate to find alternative answers for what had been done to her and what she was experiencing now. Anything that ight let her believe all of this wasn't real.

Only she knew it was.

"I saw," she admits. "It's like I was made new again." Which both did and did not fit with this all being an illusion or a hallucination. "He was going to release that stuff into the ocean. That's why there were three of us in the lab. He wanted to see what happened to people who weren't like me."

"His name was Bob. He was my guard. I gassed him and escaped. So Karl used him as a test subject." A pause. "I don't know if I killed him, or the crystals." Not that she's even sure if there's a difference, given the devastation her change had caused to the lab. She'd seen the bleeding ears and the burst eye vessels, how Karl's being had been torn apart, and that was from behind a protective wall. The mutant, she knew, had fared okay. She didn't know how or why, but he'd walked away. Run, really. But other than calling her a monster, he'd been unaffected by it all.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
"Would be nice, wouldn't it? If this was all some dream," Clint says, he understood her fear. He'd felt it's like when she'd been missing, those nights he'd dreamed of her and woke, he'd wished like hell the dream was real and what he woke to was the dream, but it never was.

He lifts her palm and kisses it.

"This is all real, Keyboard, I wish I could say it wasn't but at least you're free."

From Hydra at least. She wasn't free of what they'd done to her.

Bob's story breaks his heart, not because he felt for the guard, but because Skye felt so much guilt for his death. He returns to the couch, and wraps her in his arms, "It's not your fault, it's theirs, you didn't ask to be changed. You couldn't control what they did to you."

He kisses her on the top of her head. "All you did was try to escape, that's what you're supposed to do."

As for Karl's plan, "And from what I read of the recovery report, the chemicals were contained by one of the workers there, so, Karl lost a base and didn't get to test out his plan."

Quake has posed:
Skye draws a shaky breath, feeling more grounded than she had minutes ago, but it's a tentative thing, and she knows it. She can still feel that welling buzz within her, threatening to break free at any moment if she lets down her guard.

"I know I was supposed to try. I almost did it, too. It doesn't change how horrible I feel." But that, she knew, was part of the job. The lab was a horror she was trying to deal with, but the other, Bob, on it's face, was a part of the job. If she'd fallen? There'd have been so many more casualties.

It was sobering to think of it.

"I know too much, don't I? I mean, if I ever did get taken, and converted, they'd kill me, wouldn't they?" She might only be level 4, but Skye had unique access and insight to SHIELD that few, if any, other agents had. She didn't want to believe she could be treated like that kind of a liability, but the fact of the matter was it made sense that she would be if push came to shove.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
"I know," Clint holds her tighter. "Feels like shit, doesn't it? And knowing it's part of the job helps a little but not enough," he says. "Still, glad you made it home."

"Maybe," Clint says, honestly. "Depends on how much of what you know could be made obsolete. Codes changed, assets moved, Fury likes you, he'd move heaven and Earth to avoid making that call." But he would make that call.

As for Clint, if that call was made, he'd do everything in his power to make sure whoever they sent to take that shot, missed.

"Anyhow, I'd be more worried about them making you run this place one day," Clint says trying to put a lighter spin on things. "That's usually what they do to the folks who know all the secrets."

Quake has posed:
Skye snorts at the idea of running the place. "Riiight because that's going to happen."

The rest is both reassuring and terrifying in turns. Fury did like her. And he would move heaven and earth. She liked to believe she was a good agent. Maybe even a damned good one. But even she'd make that call if she had to. And that scared her as well.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
"Could totally happen," Clint says. "Don't make me run down the list of things you do that other level fours don't," he says glad of this distraction. "My money is on you're being groomed, so as much as he'd move heaven and Earth to not make that call, he'll do the same to make sure whatever happened to you, doesn't stop that, doesn't take you out of SHIELD."

He kisses the back of her hand now, running his fingers over the too smooth skin.

"And if he doesn't, I will, though it'll be way less impressive, because I'm not director," he says keeping things light.

Quake has posed:
"Groomed," Skye queries, tilting her head at Clint. "How so? I mean, why would you say that?"

She might be able to come up with reasons if she thought about it, but right now she needs the distraction as well, and it's working. Her mind wandering back from the pit it was digging for itself. Her limbs feeling more and more real and less that incessant buzz.

His assertion he'd move heaven and earth to keep her in SHIELD makes her smile. "Might be more impressive, you not being the Director and all." But she had a sense Clint was right. Even May had been wont to keep secrets for her. Whatever it was that Skye was to SHIELD, it was clear she was an asset they were willing to invest heavily in.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
"Because he let's you get away with things other agents don't do. Like how you walk into his office, you know who else does that? Maria Hill.." Clint says as though that had made his case. "To say nothing of you just promoting two people to agent on your own authority."

He shakes his head and chuckles. "You are so going to end up my boss someday," he says with a mock groan.

"And yeah, I know, but I do what I can with what I got," he says. "Which pretty much means, I bribe the review board with spicy ramen or shoot them, I'm sort of limited when it comes to tricks," he says with an easy smile.

Quake has posed:
Skye sits with what he says, before allowing herself a twist of lips and a nod. "I could do that. His job, I mean. I could see doing that." Because she could. There were things that just seemed to happen in the course of her life that all pointed that way - maybe not specifically to replacing Fury, but something similar. Some agents had to be taught the things Skye just fell into by viture of being herself. It might have taken her longer to reach their levels in physical aspects of the job, or even marksmanship, but the rest? She'd taken to it like she'd been born to it.

"I'll try not to have to fire you," she says with a laugh, and a toe nudge his way. "I'd say shoot them. No way you could carry that many containers of ramen on your own."

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Clint nods, "Well with adding new agents you already sort of are," he teases with a smile. "But yeah, I could see it too. You think the right way for it. Big picture, you see the patterns and take action."

There's a laugh about her firing him, "And here I thought I'd be in for a promotion," he says. "Why'd you think I got beer all over us that night? Making moves for the future." Of course that wasn't true, he had his foot halfway out the door back then, with an eye to going to the Avengers full-time. Now things had gone a full 180 and he was with SHIELD and Skye more than the team of heroes. The strangest part of that change was that he was entirely okay with it.

"And you got it, I'll shoot them then," he says with a smile.

Quake has posed:
"Liar," Skye laughs. "And I can't even remember who spilled the beer. Didn't we kick it over trying to kiss or something?" It had been a comedy of errors, regardless.

The laugh leaves her smiling truly now. "You weren't SHIELD then. I remember that. I remember we agreed that we wouldn't make the other choose. I thought it was kind of weird you might think I'd have a problem with that. You being an Avenger." Of course she hadn't tweaked he was *Hawkeye* for.. well, they'd been dating for some time when that had happened, and even remembering made her blush. "Definitely shoot them. But I'd check in with Tony first. Make sure he still has your room free."

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Clint is laughing too, "Yeah, sounds about right. God, we were pretty hopless," It was a miracle that they'd slept together that night let alone had stayed together afterwards, yet they made it work.

"I love you Keyboard," he says leaning in to kiss her.

"And I remember, just didn't want to leave that gulf between us, you in SHIELD, me in the Avengers, stuff we couldn't talk about " he says. Sure they had that now, but it was only the odd thing and despite it, it still felt like they shared the same world.

"Got it, but I don't think my room is around any more, or anyone elses, the mansion vanished. Everyone's okay, but yeah, something to do with whatever was happening with Aaron," he says. "Anyhow I don't think I'm leaving SHIELD any time soon, I sort of like some of the people here," he says giving her a nudge.

Quake has posed:
"Totally hopeless," Skye agrees. "Not sure much has changed since then." Other than the fact that despite everything life had thrown at them, they'd made it work. In fact, they'd grown increasingly closer. "Almost been a year, did you know that?"

She nods to herself. It's almost unfathomable to her that she's been with someone, anyone, that long. That it's him only makes it all the more something she boggles at, if only because of how different he is from anything she ever expected, and how well he'd complemented and completed her.

"Told you then, and would tell you again tomorrow, there wasn't going to be a gulf. If we were ever going to make it, we still had to be our own people. Breaking what made the other person wasn't going to help us." She smiles crookedly. "So we had to learn what things we could and couldn't talk about, and the things we needed to. I don't think we broke any state secrets." And given that both Fury and May had allowed their relationship to continue without comment, Skye was pretty sure they were doing something right in those departments.

"Wait, the mansion is gone?" She doesn't recall reading about that, or hearing about it at all. "How long was I gone for again?" Because it seems like the whole world went to hell in a handbasket while she was down for the count.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Clint doesn't even hesitate in nodding, "Yeah, still all head over heels for you, Keyboard," he says of them being hopeless, realizing that was the source of a lot of his awkward back then. It was a minor miracle that they'd made it from there to here considering, but it was a miracle he was grateful for. "Fifteen days," Clint says with a smile. "Probably still be out in the woods when we hit a year, but I can bring some perogis and beer if we want to celebrate," he jokes lightly.

He really didn't know what he was doing when he'd come to her place with a sixer of beer and the vague idea of asking her out or making a move and he certainly didn't expect he'd find someone who fit with him so effortlessly, someone he couldn't imagine not being part of his life.

"I know, it was dumb," Clint says. "Those early days scared the crap out of me, I mean, there you were being all perfect and everything," he pauses a beat then amends, "Perfect for me, anyhow. And I didn't want to fuck it up. Guess I didn't know how strong this was then, know it now though, and that it only works if we're still us." There's a chuckle. "Yeah, no secrets broken, and it seems the brass approves, which under normal circumstances would tick me off to no end, but I guess I can live with colouring within the lines for a change."

"Oh shit, yeah, I think it actually happened when were just back here at the Trisk, I wasn't paying attention to anything that wasn't tracking Cal, but yeah, got sucked into some timeless dimension thing, Totally took me by surprise. And I know that feeling though, like the whole world changed and forgot to send us a memo. Anyhow, the team's on it, not really something a bow and arrow is going to fix though, so I'm still on the reserve team," as he had been before she was taken, giving him time to focus on Cal, Karl and the Neon Dragons. Then another thing occurs to him, "Oh right, should probably mention, something's up with Vision too. Apparently he's gone full on scary vigilante, like criminals are wasting their humanity and they don't deserve it."

Clint's expression is grim there, Vision had been the best person he knew for years. Still jokes were a good cover for pain, "Don't you miss the time in your life where you just had normal problems? I know I do."

He really didn't though. He wouldn't give up this life for anything.

Quake has posed:
Skye gives him a crooked grin. She remembers those days well herself. She'd had no clue what was going on, only that there was something about this man and she couldn't walk away from him. She'd been terrified of messing things up. So terrified she'd almost messed things up because of that fact.

Somehow (and with the help of friends) they'd managed to straighten things out, and the rest, as they say, was history.

Skye wouldn't change things for the world, either.

"Not sure I was perfect. I don't even know what that is. Sometimes I'm still really confused as to how all this happened. Sometimes it feels like a whole different person was living my life before you." Her smile softens. "Not really. Just, I never saw any of this coming."

She sighs, and sobers as he mentions Vision. "Wonder if that has anything to do with why he was acting so weird at the house party when we got back from China. I feel really rotten, you know? I've been so caught up in my own story since that, I didn't even stop to think about him."

She wasn't the only one, and as things went, her own woes had been hefty enough to warrant forgiveness for not pondering deeper on Vision's odd behaviour.

"Speaking of normal problems, Fury came to visit me in medical today."

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
"Like I said, perfect for me. which means um, compatabily messed up, I guess?" Clint offers grinning. "I get the feeling, I wouldn't say I am a different person, but meeting you was definitely one of those moments, you know, where you can divide your life into before and after. One of those, what do you call them? Epochs? And yeah didn't see it coming either, but," he leans in to steal a kiss. "Glad it did."

Then like her he sobers, "That's my guess, and I know what you mean, I feel bad too, he was a friend and a good one, I just figured he was so stable, that even after the freakout he'd get it sorted. Going to need to track him down."

"And oh? What'd the boss have to say?"

Quake has posed:
Kiss stolen, Skye ponders, "How does someone who technically isn't a real person get messed up like that?" It's not that she doesn't think of Vision as a 'person', but on a fundamental level, he's programming, isn't he? Or maybe there's something she is missing about the whole thing. "I mean, it's kind of weird that he'd suddenly go off the rails like that. And horrible timing, too. We had any idea what we're going to do about it?"

It was funny, his problems gave her something to think about besides her own, even if she knew deep down inside that she probably wasn't the best help for him right now.

"Well, mostly we talked about what happened on the base. And to me. Got the you're one of us speech. I told him about Karl. How Karl /was/ the computer, and my new assignment is to figure out how to solve that problem, given he's likely got his dirty little fingers shoved into our computers so deep we should thank him anytime a program coughs."

Lots of mixed metaphor going on there.

"We talked about sending Bucky back up north to Siberia to check out that facility that he and Nat got up and running and hooked into the defunct satellite network." Which they'd also got up and running, and left up and running under Skye's advisement. "Nothing more than the fate of the world at my fingertips," she jokes. "I think I might be the one who gets to give him the good news. Oh, and something something about a promotion. Nothing unusual." She makes utter light of it all.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
It hadn't dawned on Clint that Skye would see Vision as just another computer program until now. But it made sense, computers made sense to her in a way they didn't to Clint, they always seemed a little bit baffling, with fuzzy edges where anything was possible, for Skye, he suspected they were a lot better defined. "He's a person," he assures her. "Whatever he was created for, he's gone beyond that, become a good person, don't ask me how, but yeah, he's one of the best people I know. As for what to do? I'm going to go talk some sense into him. He's an Avenger, I owe him that much."

Clint frowns about Karl, "That deep, huh? Damn. Can you get him out?"

There is a slight twitch of his lips at the mention of someone else being sent to Siberia. "Well, they do call him the Winter Soldier, guess it's only fitting he's sent to Siberia, in well, almost winter. Figure the sats are the key to alll this?"

Then she says the P word. "What? You're kidding, right? How did you not lead with that??" he's grinning though, ear to ear.

Quake has posed:
Skye nods with regards to Vision. It's not that she thinks of him as just another computer program, she's not got Clint's length of experience with him, and she's trying to understand /how/ he's gone beyond that programming. At first she can't make the stories mesh, even knowing how AI's have gone beyond the bounds of their creation. She's stuck on the matrix at the core of him. His ethics and personnality modules. Only while she's pondering that, bits and pieces of the rest of the conversation filter through.

"Yeah. I would imagine he's that deep. If not here, then at least everywhere else. I wasn't kidding when I said to May that he couldn't be contained to a data stick or a hard drive. He's just part of the ether.. oh wow. Okay. So, actually, Vision might be able to help us. And that's the missing bit. Karl kind of went the other way. He's become digital, even though he once had flesh. I'm not even sure who he was here at SHIELD. I guess that's part of the assignment."

But it makes more sense now, how Vision has transcended his programming, only it makes his distress and his actions even more sad to regard. "We have to do something for him." Not about. For. Though ultimately she may mean the same thing.

She's so lost in thought she almost misses his response to her last drop of information. "Yeah. Level 5. In his usual fashion. Yada yada, pull up your pants and carry on Agent Johnson. I expect better of my Level 5 agents. Something like that. I confess I was a bit stuck back on the Karl problem when he dropped it." She shrugs with a grin. "Better story this way? I don't know. It feels a bit surreal, really. But I guess it really does mean what happened at that base doesn't change anything with regards to SHIELD."

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
"Jesus," Clint says trying to imagine that asshole Karl everywhere.

The bit about Vision being the missing piece earns a nod from Clint. "Makes sense, they're like opposite sides of the same coin, right? Viz is a program trying to become human and Karl is a human, apparently, who became a program. You don't think, Karl is the one to fry Vision?" he asks.

He hoped not, that would mean Karl was sooo many moves ahead of them.

"As for who he was in SHIELD, when'd he say he was working with us?" Clint asks.

As for Vision, "I'll put Viz on top of my list, I like to think he sees me as a friend, I am hoping I can reach him, y'know, once I find him."

As for the promotion, Clint's grin doesn't fade, though he does laugh about how it came about. "He always seems to drop those on you at the strangest times," he says leaning forward to hug her and give her quick kiss on the lips.

"And yeah, I'd say that's a pretty big vote of confidence, Keyboard. Keep this up and I'll be reporting to you."

Quake has posed:
"I hope not," Skye makes a face with regards to Karl infiltrating Vision's programming. "But.. well, YOU can check him out. I'm kind of house bound. Though I think I can convince Fury to let us go to that cabin." She was almost positive about that. Not only did the man want her to find out how to deal with Karl, there was no way he wanted her figuring out how to use her powers at the Trisk. Not unless they had better measures put in place for dealing with a powered individual, and that they just didn't have. Incarerating them? Yes. Keeping them and others safe while learning to control themselves? Not so much.

"You should probably try to find out what's going on with him. I don't want to think they're related. And Karl said about 70 years ago. He worked in programming for us. Said we used him up and tossed himself. Let his wife, Ilsa, die. He knew about the crystals my parents had from then. He was likely always going to be looking for me. Actually, I guess that would make about then when he joined Hydra, too, huh? What was going on about 70 years ago here?"

Because that's part of the history lesson she didn't get, not ever having gone to the Academy, having taken the direct recruitment model into SHIELD.

She smiles shyly after the kiss. "Yeah. Not just the promotion. Said I was one of his best agents. I don't know. It feels strange to be.. good? Valued? Doing something like I always thought I was with Rising Tide, but really wasn't? I mean, we make a difference." Even if sometimes those differences came with a cost.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
"Same, that'd be bad news," Clint says of Karl influencing Vision, though it made a scary amount of sense, if Karl wanted a new robot body? Where was he going to find one that's better? "Guess, I should go looking soon then if you think we can get to go to the cabin," he says his mind already working through the logistics of tracking down the prodigal synthezoid. "But it'll be nice to get to the cabin, take some of the stress off of you."

"Well that'd be the 1950's couldn't be much programming going on back then, right?" Clint asks, to his mind the things were room sized back then. Though SHIELD likely was doing a bit better than that even then. Clint had missed out on the Academy too but fortunately he'd had Coulson for an SO, so he was steeped in SHIELD history. "SHIELD started in '48, so those would be the early days, back when Fury was running the show with Agent Cater and Tony's dad, Howard. Might need to do some diving in the paper records but SHIELD couldn't have been that big back then."

Clint smiles in turn, "You are though," he says. "You've done a ton in a short time, and yeah, here, with SHIELD you get to really make a difference," he says, reaching for her hand and giving it a squeez. "It's where you belong, I think."

Quake has posed:
"Geez, how old is Fury anyway? And there was a ton of computing going on then. Just because it wasn't mainstream doesn't mean nothing was happening. Where do you think our computers sprang from anyway? The whole space program was based on the adolescence of computer technology that started way before the 50's. SHIELD would have had access to exclusive tech, I would imagine. Things not even dreamed of in the usual circles, let alone mainstream. We really have to find out what he was working on then. Who he even was - because he wasn't Karl, or we'd have run across this already."

Her fingers curl about his for a moment. "Not leaving. I like who I am here. However, you need to find someone to help you track down Vision. I don't /think/ Karl has made the leap to considering his body as a new home? But do we want to take that chance?"

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
"Old, like Cap old, just without the time in the freezer," Clint says with a smile. "No one's quite sure how he does it, he's never said how in my hearing, but my bet is on him being some sort of secret mutant." Then he cocks his head, "Yeah good point, guess it was a thing back then too. So, that makes finding this guy a bit more haystack-y, but yeah, we need to figure out what this guy was working on and if we're still using any of it. Maybe that's how they got us in the first place, the attack on the Trisk? This guy was there at the start, knows how we work."

"Glad," he says bringing her hand to his lips. Then he gives tracking down Vision some thought. "Good point," he admits. "Should be a big gun too, if it comes to a fight I'm not going to be able to take him on my own unless I shoot first and ask questions later, and that's not the plan."

He makes a face. "Top three picks, Thor, Wanda or Carol," he says. They were the team powerhouses, outside of Hulk and Tony. Hulk was off the list because it sounded like Viz was in urban areas and Tony, well, Tony wore a machine, that'd be bad news if Karl was pushing Vision's buttons. "Guess I'll have to make some calls."

Quake has posed:
"Whatever it was," Skye mutters, "It was big. And secret. He could not impress upon me harder that we used him. Used him up and spit him out kind of used him. Something big enough that he believes we let his wife die rather than spill the beans on some secret. That kind of big. Which means.. well, I do have some pretty impressive clearance."

If it wasn't level 10, and it was in the system, she had access. If it wasn't in the system? Then things got a bit trickier. Of course, Fury did just tell her this was her problem to figure out, which meant she either had the access or she'd get it.

That settled in her mind, she shrugs. She's good with it.

"Wanda. Thor. Or Carol. You might want a team." Not that she knew all of it, but Vision wasn't playing nice. Hedging their bets might be wise.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Clint frowns thinking about it. "Definitely sounds big but if it was a level 10 thing then Fury should know about it," well, if he remembered, Fury had been alive a long time and who knew how many big screts he had bouncing around that shaved head of his. He nods about the clearance, "You must have to dig into that stuff, andI hope you find this guy, seriously, beyond all the danger, I am curious what shady shit brought him to us in the first place."

"Yeah, a team might be a good idea," Clint allows of finding Vision. "Just hope I don't have to use it."

He gives Skye's hand a squeeze. "Either way, I'll get it done quick so we can go. Think I could do with some time in the woods too," he says smiling softly.

Quake has posed:
"Time in the woods, huh? I could go for that." No distractions. Freedom to figure out what the hell had happened to her. A place to get a handle on all that without worrying about hurting other people? "How long would it take to get supplies ready?"

She doesn't even ask about computer access. If it's SHIELD, it will be there. It might be well hidden, but it will be there.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
The freedom of it drew Clint as well. The freedom and the peace. So much had been happening lately he felt like he needed to catch his breath. He could only imagine what Skye must feel. Smiling at her question, he asks, "Well depends on how much we want to rough it," he says. "But a couple of days. There are kits we can grab from logistics for the basics, then it's just what we want to bring with us."

"So, really, it comes down to when we want to go," he says.

Quake has posed:
"Might need a few more days than that, but want to aim for a few days and play it by ear at that point?" Because she'd need to gather her equipment and then do some rudimentary research beforehand to know if she'd need to grab anything else just on the off chance. And then there was that one last niggling doubt. "There's still my dad, you know. He has to be dealt with, too."

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
"Went with the quickest time we could leave and figured we'd adjust it to our needs, so that works., sounds like it'll be at our discretion anyhow, and there's always quinjets ready to go," Clint says easily of their trip. He still had a synthezoid to find anyhow.

And a roided out mad-scientist...

"I think Khanata was going to handle it, but he got called onto something else, guess, Vision is priority number two," he says with a bit of reluctance. This was exactly why he needed to get away, things kept piling up. "No idea how Fury manages after seventy plus years of this stuff," he says. "Anyhow, we'll bring him in, they're building him a special cell and everything, he should be safe and so should everyone else."

Quake has posed:
"You were asking how I got promoted?" He hadn't, but she's going with that angle anyway. "Fury needed someone to clear this particular crisis off his plate."

Skye knows how he feels, though. She'd felt the same way when Karl became her problem - not that he wasn't already kind of her problem to begin with. Just so many things needing her attention just now, when she most needed to focus on herself. Even if they gave her something to worry about other than obsessing about herself. And frankly, she needed that, too.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
"Heh," Clint says. "Always knew the boss was a sneaky bastard," he says with a grin. He stands and offers Skye a hand. "I'll get on finding your dad, tomorrow," he promises. "But for now, I know our room isn't as nice as a cabin in the woods, but it's pretty cozy," he says gently.

He continues: "How about we hole up there for a few hours and get some rest? Seems like we're both going to need it." Then his grin becomes a smirk. "I'll even let you steal most of the covers this time, in honour of your promotion." He gives her a wink.

Quake has posed:
Skye stands with the help of his offered hand, but swats him almost immediately once she's up. "Keep it up, and someone gets to sleep in the bow room. Not that you probably will mind."

She's relaxed considerably since earlier, it's clear in the lines of her. And she's also looking pretty exhausted. "More tests in the morning. Think some snuggling under the blankets and sleep sounds pretty good. I was beginning to forget what a nice bed felt like after that cot."

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Clint laughs even as he flinches back playfully from the swat. "Pfft I mind, Merida is worse sheet hog than you are!" he protests still laughing. "It must be your bad influence."

The laughter retreats to his eyes as he bends down, waay down, to kiss her. "I bet," he says about the cot. "Well, let's go enjoy a proper bed together then, I missed you when you were away." 'When you were away' was the nice way to say it.

He jerks his head towards their room, "C'mon."

Quake has posed:
Skye needs no urging other than that, and is grateful to follow him to their room and settle down for the night... Eventually.