joining the team

When they land at the Shield base Bobbi and Jemma head inside with Antoine Triplet while the male of the group asks Rex to stay in the hangar bay.

While he's waiting in the hangar base one friendly face comes out of the bus to greet him.

"Rex, where have you been. You missed quite a lot." Mack says, pulling the nanite controlling man into a quick hug.

"Yeah, I heard about it from Skye, I was out dealing with potential Evos." Rex says.

"Evos huh? I'll believe it when I see it." Mack replies.

"Believe me most of the time, you don't want to see it." Rex says chuckling.

"So, what's the situation? Are you gonna stay this time?" Mack asks.

"It's not up to me. It's Coulson's decision." Rex answers with a shrug.

The two continue to chat for a good 10 minutes before another familiar face arrives from inside the base in form of Skye stepping out of the steel doors, waving at Rex who's sitting on the loading dock of the bus with Mack.

"Skye. And here I thought you were avoiding me." Rex greets her jokingly, the two hugging each other happily.

"Come on, Coulson and I have to show you something." She tells him after breaking the hug.

"Alright. Mack, I'll see you around." Rex says, bumping fists with the large man and follows his secret crush.

"What do you want to show me?" He asks.

"Coulson finally showed me what he was keeping from me and I think you may be able to help with it." Skye tells him.

"That's good right?" He says confused and she nods positive in reply.

"So what is it?" He asks as they walk through the halls of the base and see Jemma trying to reconnect with Fitz through the glass doors they pass.

"Just come up and see for yourself. But you can't tell anyone else about this." She says.

"Alright." Rex says following her up the stairs to the director's office where he's waiting with crossed arms, staring at a wall with carvings.

"So, what's the thing I'm supposed to help with?" Rex asks, entering the room with Skye shutting the door behind him.

"Look for yourself. We don't know what it means, just that it's important." Phil Coulson tells him, nodding at the wall.

Rex walks over to the man and stops beside him, looking at the wall for a moment before getting closer and tracing his hand over it.

"Can you tell me something about who carved this?" Rex asks, continuing tracing over the wall.

Skye and Coulson exchange a look which tells her to keep quiet about the fact that he carved it.

"We can't, sorry." Coulson replies.

"Hmm well my guess would be this is a map of some sorts, but I mean there is nothing like x marks the spot if you know what I mean. Why would a map be so important if it didn't show anything?" Rex says wondrously.

"A map? Yeah, I think I know what you mean. That's good. I think Rex is right about this." Skye agrees, her eyes lighting up in realization.

"Glad I could help." Rex says shrugging.

"Is there something else?" Rex asks.

"No, that's all." Coulson replies and Rex leaves the office.

"Director Coulson. Give him a chance. I know that part of the reason you didn't want him with Shield is me... but I'm fine. And i believe Rex is a good guy and that we'll need him in the future. You saw yourself how active Hydra still is and now they know about him as well, so he'll be on their radar now. Wouldn't it be better to keep him here and keep him safe?" Skye asks.

"Fine. You got a point. Hydra will certainly be interested in capturing him. He can join if he wants to." Coulson says nodding and makes the wall slide back up in the ceiling.

"Thank you." Skye thanks him gratefully.

After leaving the office she goes looking for Rex and finds him peering into the lab.

"What're you looking at?" Skye asks walking up behind him.

"A dangerous experiment. I think." Rex says worried.

"What do you mean?" She asks.

"They are producing more nanites and giving them to that rat." Rex says, all but practically seeing the nanites contained in the small rodent.

"Why?" Skye asks, not having known that's what they're doing.

"To create an Evo." Rex says disappointed and continues walking down the corridor.

"Anyways... I spoke to Coulson and if you still want to, you'll have a job here with us." Skye says, looking him in the eyes.

"Sure. I did miss the company." Rex says with a grin and puts an arm around her, pulling her with him to the hangar.

"Let's give Mack the good news." Rex tells her, entering the hangar to find their muscular friend.

|That evening|

Rex is heading to his new sleeping quarters when he hears quiet sniffling from the room next to his.

"Hello? Are you OK in there?" He asks, knocking on the door and is surprised to see Skye opening the door, wearing a red, baggy shirt and black tights.

"Since when is this your room?" Rex asks surprised since she was in another room before.

"Since we started recruiting more agents and needed more space." She replies stepping back into her room while leaving the door open for him.

"Are you OK? It sounded like you were crying." Rex asks, stepping into her room, closing the door behind him while she hops onto her bed, sitting on it sideways.

"I'm fine. Today was just... a lot." She says sounding exhausted and leans back, lying over her bed diagonally.

"Because of what happened with Jemma?" He asks, leaning with his back against the door.

"No. Because of what happened afterwards." Skye says, picking up a picture from her bedside table.

"What happened?" Rex asks.

"My father. I caught a glimpse of who he is. Thanks to this and..." She says, before sighing sadly.

"It's fine. I don't need to know. I'm sure whatever it is he is worried about you. I know that if you were to get abducted right now, I'm not sure what I'd be willing to do to get you back. Uhm back to Shield." He says, correcting himself so he doesn't make things awkward.

"In a sense that's touching, but I wouldn't want anyone to change." She says, turning to look at him.

"Haven't you changed the most from what I heard?" He asks laughing lightly.

"Yeah, that's true." She agrees laughing softly.

"Look, I don't know what he did or what you're going through exactly. But I'm pretty sure of one thing. That feeling of wondering who your parents are, won't go away until you know." Rex advises.

"Do you wonder? Who they are, if they're alive?" Skye asks Rex.

"All the time." He replies, nodding.

"See you tomorrow neighbor." Rex tells her with a warm smile before turning around and opening the door.

"Thanks. And welcome back. And for the record... I did miss having you around." She says, tapping her hula girl figure with a smile, making it shake.

"Good night Skye." Rex says and leaves her room, going to his new room and slips of his boots before falling onto the bed to sleep.