time apart

"Thanks again for doing this Skye." Rex says quietly into a com he has in his ear, as he's sneaking into a building the hacker turned Shield agent hacked him into.

"No problem. It feels good to keep my abilities up to date to be honest." She replies, looking at a satellite transmission of him sneaking into the building.

"How are things going over there? Any idea yet what that thing was Creel stole?" Rex asks while he's quietly walking through the building, looking up at some cameras while wearing a plain porcelain theatre mask, Skye having control over the video and put everything on loop for him.

"Not yet. But it has something to do with that stuff Garrett had. Coulson is still keeping me in the dark though." Skye tells him.

"Have you tried asking him upfront?" Rex asks.

"Yeah, duh. But he just dodged the conversation." Skye tells him.

"Sorry. That must suck, I know you see him as kind of a father figure, right?" Rex says, peering around a corner in the building.

"I guess. Yeah." Skye replies, replaying in her mind how Ward tried to bait her into letting her guard down in claiming he has information about her real father.

"Where to next?" Rex asks.

"Uhh, Three doors down to your left." Skye says, pulling up a floor plan of the building.

"Thanks. So, anything else up with you? How's Fitz?" Rex asks.

"Doing a bit better. He's bonding with Mack and they're becoming quite the team." Skye says with a small smile.

"Good to hear." Rex says quietly before he disappears from her view. She hears a few strained grunts before seeing him fly out of the room he went into and right into the opposite wall, creating a sizeable dent while his body get enveloped by a mechanical looking suit made of his nanites.

"You OK?" She asks surprised.

"Yeah, this thing is just bigger than I thought." Rex replies, ducking under what she identifies as a massive root.

Rex jumps onto the root and runs down it back into the room where Skye hears a screeching sound before it's replaced by Rex panting heavily.

"Rex? Are you OK?" Skye asks worried and sees him stumble out of the room exhausted.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. The suit just takes a lot of concentration and I'm close to overloading with nanites now." Rex huffs, walking back the way he came while holding himself up on the wall.

"You can overload?" She asks surprised, following his movements on the cameras before he's out of the building and she leaves their system, wiping any recording and any data she can in their system.

"Yep and it's not as good as it sounds." Rex says jokingly.

"What happens?" She asks concerned.

"I could lose control and turn into an Evo like those myself." Rex answers while getting into his car and turning on his phone while taking out his earpiece along with his mask, face chatting with the Shield agent.

"An Evo yourself huh?" She asks curiously, looking at his sweating face with some amusement.

"Technically I already am one, I just can control my nanites." Rex says.

"So I'm friends with an Evo huh?" She asks with a grin.

"Pretty much yeah." He chuckles.

"Thanks for helping me." He thanks her after he stopped chuckling.

"No problem." She says with a smile.

"Won't you get into trouble with Coulson?" He asks.

"I doubt it. He knows I'm still in contact with you." She answers.

"Bet he isn't happy about that huh?" Rex asks amused.

"He doesn't show it if he isn't." She says shrugging.

"What happened anyways? You just left with no advance notice." She asks curiously.

"He didn't think I'm the right fit for the moment." Rex answers vaguely.

"Don't tell me you're gonna start dodging questions too now." Skye says warningly.

"He couldn't depend on my abilities since Fitz couldn't really give him a good evaluation of them and he didn't like that we've become close." Rex confesses.

"Why would he be worried about that?" She asks mildly annoyed and surprised.

"He is just trying to look out for you and worried that if we became close in 'that' sense he'd need to make sure I'm not another Grant Ward." Rex tells her.

"But it's not his place to decide who I like." Skye says annoyed.

"Just drop it. I think we should give him a break on this. He isn't wrong afterall. Just a bit overprotective." Rex says.

"Plus it's not like we're going out, so why make a big deal about it for nothing?" Rex adds.

"Yeah I guess that's true." She agrees.

"Thanks for leaving your number by the way. As much as I don't like to admit this, I missed your relaxed nature around here. Things are just getting hairier and hairier. Having you to talk to takes off some of the edge, so there's still hope I won't turn into a mini May." She jokes, making him laugh.

"Yeah, one May is enough." Rex says.

"Hey I gotta go. Something is going on." Skye tells him while walking to the plane's exit.

"Alright. Be careful out there." Rex tells her and ends the call.

|a few days later|

Skye, May, Hunter and Coulson are in a restaurant where Raina asked them for a meet and the two women are hiding in the kitchen while Coulson is waiting for the woman openly with Hunter hiding in another booth.

After talking around the bush for a bit Raina reveals why she's there. She intends to take Skye to her father, or she'll blow Simmon's cover while she's working for Hydra.

"Let me go with her." Skye tells Coulson and May, who is stopping her trainee from leaving the kitchen.

"No deal!" Coulson tells both her and Raina, pushing the phone with countdown back over to Raina.

Skye stops trying to fight against May and instead has another idea. She steps away from the Asian woman and gets out her phone hurriedly dialing a number and after two rings Rex answers.

"Hello? Skye?" He asks.

"Yeah it's me. Listen, Simmon's cover is about to get blown. Can you help her somehow?" Skye asks her voice displaying her worry for her British friend.

"March right into Hydra's base of operations?" Rex asks.

"Please. She's in trouble." Skye begs.

"I got it I'll think of something." Rex answers and hangs up, getting up from his seat at a cafe from where he can see the Hydra base, Skye having asked him to keep an eye on Simmons since he was in the area for the job at the lab she hacked him into.

Rex walks up to the side of the building, before pulling off the cap he was wearing and his face is covered by a nanite helmet while he sprouts his rotor wings and flies up to the building's roof.

Once there he breaks through the door of the staircase and walks down the stairs, already hearing shouting and gunfire heading his way to his surprise.

Hiding behind where the door will open Rex doesn't have to wait long before Simmons and another woman wearing a Hydra uniform storm out.

"Go up to the roof. We have an extraction waiting there." The woman shouts and turns to barricade the door they just escaped through when she sees Rex.

"Who is this guy!?" She shouts and skillfully swings her batons at him Rex ducking underneath the swings and pressing himself against the door while nodding for her to go after Jemma. The woman looks at him suspiciously for a moment before hurrying up the stairs, hearing the door of the floor beneath them opening.

Rex turns one hand into a massive sledgehammer and swings at the wall next to the door, collapsing a chunk of cement in front of the door while he's jumping away from it and then follows the two women up to the roof.

"It's not here yet. Shit." The woman with Jemma curses while Rex hurries out of the door and makes his helmet disappear.

"Rex!" Jemma says relieved and stops the woman with her from attacking their ally.

"He's with us." Jemma says while he runs towards them as they are standing on the roof's edge.

"Coulson didn't tell me about him." The woman replies wearily.

"That's cause I'm not here on Coulson's orders. I'm doing a favor for Skye." Rex says and grabs onto Jemma's arm holding his other hand out to the woman he doesn't know.

"I can get us out of here. Grab onto me." Rex says and Jemma tugs her other savior in so Rex can grab a hold of her too before his wings appear behind him and he leaps off the building while making his rotors turn faster than usual due to the added weight and the time sensitive situation they're in.

"Who are you?" The woman asks him while Rex flies them onto a building which is not in view for the Hydra operatives who chased them onto the roof.

"Rex. I'm a friend." He replies and lands them.

"You can call me Bobbi." The woman replies and fishes out a communicator, telling the Quinjet to pick them up at this building instead of the Hydra base.

"How did you know we needed help?" Jemma asks while they are waiting for their ride.

"Skye called me and asked me to help." Rex replies.

"Thank god. How is everyone?" Jemma asks.

"I don't know I haven't been on base for a few weeks myself." Rex informs her.

"Our ride is here. Are you coming with or not?" Bobbi asks, stepping onto the invisible platform of the Quinjet hovering in front of them.

"Yeah, better put some distance between myself and Hydra so I might as well." Rex answers, stepping onto the jet together with Jemma.