Chapter Text
"You can't park here."
Skye stares at the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent glaring at her through the van window.
"It's okay. I'm a S.H.I.E.L.D. consultant," Skye says flashing him her best smile. "I'm part of Agent Coulson's team."
The agent doesn't look impressed. "You can't park here," he repeats.
Skye sighs. "Fine." She's learned that there's no point in arguing. They've been back at S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters in New York for almost a week, and she's had to move her van a dozen times. S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters is even more anal than Manhattan about parking, and when she parks it in the city she always get tickets because she can never remember to change to the opposite side of the street.
She pulls out of the S.H.I.E.L.D. garage where she's been parked the past twelve hours and wonders where she's going to go. She wishes that she were back on the bus, and then she remembers the airfield where the bus is currently undergoing inspection. It was heavily guarded during the day, but it's night now. Besides, she only needs a place to park until the bus leaves in the morning.
The airfield is in New Jersey, and it takes an hour fighting traffic before she pulls onto the unmarked dirt road leading out to it. It's barely lit, and the guard at the entrance looks bored as he scans her security badge and takes it from her. As she waits for him to wave her through, she congratulates herself on her resourcefulness until she is suddenly blinded by spotlights.
A voice on a megaphone shouts, "Come out with your hands up."
"Crap," Skye mutters.
*****
Coulson is not happy when he comes to get her out of holding.
"What were you thinking?" he asks.
"I just needed a place to park my van," she says. She crosses her arms defensively. "I'd been kicked out parking at S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters twice, and I couldn't park in the city without getting a ticket, so I figured I'd just park at the airfield. I have clearance."
"Not that level of clearance. Why were you staying in your van?"
"I didn't have any other place to go."
Coulson looks genuinely surprised. "You didn't?"
"No." Skye wonders how he can be so oblivious. "Before I was with you guys, I lived in a van in L.A. for two years. I don't have any place to stay in New York."
"Well next time I'll help you figure something else out."