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“Did you do what I asked?” May announced, striding into the lounge area of the Bus where Coulson, Simmons and Fitz were standing. The scientists had their research layering the screens of the holocomm.

“Well, hello to you too, Agent May.” Fitz quipped in reply. His frustrations were derived from his desperation to clear Ward of any suspicion in regards to his family’s death, and there was hardly anything incriminating on any of the officers. At May’s glare, he muttered a “Sorry.”

“We’ve been looking, May.” Simmons said, aiming to relieve the tension that had clouded the room. “Unfortunately, all we’ve been able to find is a few parking tickets for Dominic Cole, an overnight arrest under Jose Tavares’ name, and Mark Jenkins is perfectly clean.”

“Except for his misogynistic views.” Fitz added in.

“Everyone’s clean first time around.” Coulson said, beckoning to May. “Keep at it.”

“Yes, sir.” They chorused, and May followed Coulson to his office.

“What did you think was suspicious about the cops?” the Director asked once he’d closed the door behind him. “If they had another agenda–”

“I think they were Hydra, and the killers of Ward’s family.” His Deputy interrupted. A stunned silence followed her words, and she continued. “I can’t think of any other way that Thomas and Amelia Ward would have died. When Thomas reported it in, he said he was only doing it so that his brother would realise how toxic Skye is for him.”

“Skye? Toxic for Ward?” Coulson’s brows merged in confusion, his expression saying that he was almost offended by the possibility. “If anything, she’s saving him.”

May nodded in agreement. “I disagreed with what he was saying about Skye, but I suppose most of that resentment stemmed from Skye shooting Ward in San Juan.”

“But you couldn’t pass up an opportunity to bring Ward in.”

May sucked in a large breath. “I also think that Skye killed both cops. Which only strengthens my belief that they were Hydra.”

Coulson raised an eyebrow at her. “Skye killed them. At point blank range? She wouldn’t do that.”

May levelled him with a flat look. “I think you underestimate what Skye is capable of. One was at the door, blocking her path to the family, and the other was probably trying to kill Ward. The scuff marks on the carpet indicate that the cop was shot in the leg during the fight, and killed a few seconds after. And not by Ward.”

Running footsteps grabbed their attention, and Fitz opened the door. “Sir, we found something.” He was heading back down the stairs before either of them could respond. The pair of them quickly followed.

“Okay, Fitz. What did you find?” Coulson asked as soon as he and May were standing by the holocomm.

“Well, we used the Trojan horse that Skye created to hack into Cybertek, rewrote the system to suit the Hydra database that connected to it and found…this.” He pulled up two files.

“It appears that Officers Mark Jenkins and Dominic Cole were Hydra members concealed within the Massachusetts Police Department since before S.H.I.E.L.D. fell.” Simmons continued. “Not as clean as we thought.”

May gave Coulson a look that plainly said I told you so. Looking back at Simmons, she jerked her chin at the files up on the screen. “What about Tavares?”

“There’s no mention of him in the database. Unfortunately, the parts we have access to are only a small segment. He could be Hydra, but we have no evidence.” Fitz replied, his brow furrowed. Simmons placed a hand on his shoulder and he relaxed a little.

“So, considering what little we do know, it’s a good thing that Officer Tavares is still alive.” She finished for him. Coulson nodded slowly as he processed what he had just been told. “Sir?”

The Director turned round when Simmons spoke, her voice tentative. “I was just wondering how Ward and Skye are going to react to this.”

“Well, considering the brutality of Hydra towards anyone not fully committed to their goals–” she began to say.

“I think it’s safe to say that Ward and Skye would never willingly walk into their hands.” Fitz added.

May felt more confident than ever that Skye knew what she was doing. Ward’s gonna really need her now.

Grant took a while to calm down enough to fall asleep, Skye cradling his head and pressing her lips against his temple. When he woke, however, he was still in his state of self-blame.

“I’ve done some terrible things, Skye.” He whispered, half-terrified that she would outright agree and say her being with him was a mistake.

“So have I.” Skye soothed, peppering his face with tiny kisses. “We justified them with reasons and excuses because we believed that the end result was worth it. You wanted to save someone’s life, whatever it took. Like Coulson did. And I wanted secret information to be released to the public for them to decide for themselves what to with it. But when Romanoff did just that, the world went to shit. We tried to do things we thought was noble and worthy, but when we reached those goals, they blew up in our faces.”

He just looked at her with that sad expression. Skye sighed internally, and thanked whatever gods were out there that Grant loved her enough to never walk away, even if he thought it was the best thing for her.

“You promised me that you would never leave, no matter what. So this is me promising you the exact same thing.” She stated, her determination like fire in her gaze. Hope sparked in Grant’s eyes, accentuating the love that was already there.

1 MONTH LATER…

Grant and Skye rushed around the corner, pressed themselves to the brick wall and sank to the floor, their arms touching. Their breathing was ragged, but thanks to their training they evened it out fairly quickly. Glancing at each other, they laughed in delight at their success.

“Any second now…” Grant said, mere moments before an explosion destroyed the central section of the Hydra factory. Skye closed her eyes and focused on harnessing the vibrations caused by the bomb to bring down the rest of the building, while limiting the blast radius to the perimeter of the factory. Screams rent the air, echoed by shouts of outrage. Grant kept flicking his attention between Skye as she crumbled the walls, and watching their surroundings, in case any guards found them.

“Done.” Skye opened her eyes as the last of the structure fell inwards. “God, I have so much adrenaline rushing through me right now.”

“Well,” Grant paused as he took out two guards before they spotted them. “I’m sure I could take care of that for you.” He winked at her and she grinned lazily in return.

“I’m sure you could. Let’s go. There’s too much death here for my liking.” She stood and stretched. “We should probably cut that bit out.”

“Why? It’s not like they won’t have figured it out.” Grant smirked as he rose to his feet. He took her hand in his and started leading her away from the wreckage.

“Because it would make them very uncomfortable! I know you wanna boast, which is why you bring it up every damn time–”

“Skye. We’ve been together for more than a month, you’re still on your S.H.I.E.L.D. birth control and we use condoms. There really isn’t anything for them to worry about.”

“Except, it’s you that I’m with. And you know how pissed off Coulson and May would get!”

Grant let out a deep sigh. Skye was stubborn on this subject. “Did you get much info from this one?”

“Not as much as I hoped.” She grumbled, knowing he was wanting to change the subject. “I don’t know how much help this one’s going to be.”

“Every little bit helps.” He tried to comfort her.

“I know, it’s just…” she trailed off, a frown creasing her forehead.

Grant opened the door to the van they’d stolen a few weeks ago and Skye got in. Leaning one arm on the door and one on the frame, he waited until she was looking at him. “We’ve given them everything we could from dozens of Hydra bases, factories and safe houses. They’re going to appreciate anything we give them because it gives them and the government more of an advantage.”

Skye smiled back at him and leaned down to give him a kiss. “We should get going.”

“Yeah.” Grant murmured, trying to get another peck.

Skye giggled. “Come on, you loony, get in.”

Grant stretched out his limbs, peeking one eye open as he reached for Skye and found nothing but rumpled sheets where she lay.

“Skye!” he called out. He checked the clock by his bedside. “It’s nearly four in the morning, what are you doing up?” He threw the covers off himself and stood. “Skye?”

“I’m through here!” she shouted back. “And since it’s four in the morning, do you mind keeping your voice down?”

Following her voice, Grant wandered down the short hallway and into the kitchen that the little house had, overlooking the small town of which it bordered. Skye turned her head to look at him as he came into view and snorted.

“You couldn’t get dressed?” she asked, turning back to the mixture that she was whisking thoroughly.

“Who else is here?” Grant countered, his hands subconsciously giving a half shrug as he walked over to her. “What are you making?”

“Cupcakes. They’re one of the few things I have learned to do in a kitchen.” She replied, a smile sneaking its way onto her face as Grant stood behind her, pressing up against her back. “Plus, I couldn’t sleep.”

“Well,” Grant started, unable to keep the smirk off his face as he nuzzled into the crook of Skye’s neck. “We could’ve done something else with that.” Skye laughed. “That smells really good though, is that chocolate?”

Skye laughed louder. “Yes it is. And for the record, you were asleep when I got up. So, no we weren’t going to delve into that again tonight.”

“You could’ve woken me.”

“No, Grant. You need to rest.”

“I need to rest about as much as you do, so why are you trying to pull the wool over my eyes?”

Skye sighed, and placed the bowl and whisk down on the bench. “I had a craving for chocolate cupcakes, okay? Probably ‘cause I haven’t had them a really long time.”

Grant blinked. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to push.”

“You didn’t, Grant.” She turned around and hugged him. “You’re right, I need to rest as well.”

“How about we cover the batter, and you can continue baking them when you wake up?” he suggested.

“I’ve already got the oven heated up…” she mused.

“We can reheat it when you’re less tired.” Grant assured her. “Now go on. I’ll tidy up and join you.” Skye nodded and reached up on her tiptoes to kiss him. “Go on.”

“I’m going! Jeez, Mr. Bossy…” she sashayed off, leaving Grant standing in the middle of the kitchen, naked, rolling his eyes.

“Great!” he sarcastically enthused. “Another nickname.”