
Finding the Silver Lining
“Skye!” Grant shouted, his hands grasping both sides of her face. “Skye!” The panic in him that started when he found blood spots instead of Skye in their bed escalated when her eyes barely focused on his face. Breathing heavily, he looked around, taking note of the blood trail that he’d followed; it was thickening as the blood leaked out in a steady stream. Glancing back, he was devastated to see the tears tracks on her cheeks. “Skye, can you hear me? Please, Skye, answer me!” he begged.
Gradually, Skye’s vision focused properly, her gaze meeting his. Blinking a few times to clarify what she was seeing, she hiccupped as she got her breathing back under control. “Grant, I…” the hand she raised to touch his face dropped again as she burst into tears. “I’m so sorry!” she choked out between sobs. “I lost it and…and I didn’t even know I had it!”
“Lost what?” Grant desperately tried to get an answer from her, completely out of his depth. He didn’t know what to do with crying women, and seeing Skye in hysterics was making his system go haywire. “Skye?”
When she didn’t answer him, he lifted the hem of her nightie, exposing her panties. Grant stifled a gasp. The small pair of underwear that she had worn to bed was soaked through.
“Skye, were you…” he trailed off, not knowing how to finish the question.
Skye nodded, her bottom lip trembling as she fought to hold in her sobs. “I miscarried.” She whispered. She brought her hands up to her face, covering them as she couldn’t bear to see his expression.
Grant let out a shaking breath and drew a hand down his face. While he was upset that he’d lost a child that he hadn’t even known he’d had, he was comforted by the fact that it took more than a month of explosions, killing and life threatening situations for their child to lose its grip on life.
“Skye, look at me, please. We need to get you cleaned up and then we can talk about it. Okay?” he ducked his head to look into her eyes as she peeked through the gaps between her fingers.
She nodded shakily. “Okay.”
Not bothering to shower and change before looking at what Skye and Ward had sent over, May and Bobbi followed Fitz through The Playground. As the scientist scurried into a seat in front of the wall of computer screens, he tapped a few buttons on the keyboard to bring up the intel. It took a several minutes for all the documents to layer themselves over one another, the agents looking at each other to confirm that they were indeed seeing the same thing.
“I told you you had to see it.” Fitz declared with a hint of a smug smile playing on his lips.
“Are you sure it’s Skye, and not Hydra trying to mess with us?” Bobbi asked once the information had all been systematically sorted and filed.
“I’m sure.” Fitz said confidently. “She adds a little something into the algorithm so that I know it’s her. Some…private thing that we share. It’s different each time. And also, if Hydra knew where to send this, the intel suggests that they have more than enough resources to wipe us off the face of the planet.”
“Even with their recent losses.” May added.
“Yeah.” He spun around on the chair to face them. “Jemma, come look!” he called to someone behind the women. They glanced around to see Simmons put whatever she was working on down, and hurry over to them. “Skye just sent us a lot of stuff.”
“From where?”
“The Hydra database.” Fitz relished the look of shock on his best friend’s face.
“She hacked into the Hydra database?”
“Using the Trojan horse that they stupidly left in their systems.”
Simmons frowned. “But wouldn’t they have figured out how to use it by now?”
“That’s a good point.” Bobbi said.
“And they could trace us here.” May added, falling silent as Fitz waved his arms around.
“Relax! Skye is the one who created it, remember? She’s encrypted its access so that it can only be accessed here, or remotely by her. And she’s hidden the location.” He glanced between the three women. “Do you really expect her not to think of everything?”
Once the blood had been scrubbed off the wooden floors, and the sheets and clothes that Skye was wearing were left in the tub to soak, Grant gently led her to their bedroom. Skye sat down on the edge of the bed and stared at the floor, terrified that Grant would leave her if he thought that she had an inability to carry a child to term. Though she knew that it was ridiculous thought to have, and she would have done everything she could to comfort another woman in her shoes, the shock of miscarrying still lingered and had every nerve on edge.
“Skye, relax.” Grant murmured, sitting further back and pulling Skye onto his lap. “I don’t blame you.”
“How could you not?” she nearly shrieked, sitting up straight. “I was the one who was carrying it!” Grant set his lips in a firm line, his arms around Skye’s waist. “Which means that I’m the one who can’t have a baby!” Tears spilled down her cheeks again, Grant’s hand immediately moving to wipe them away.
“Think about it logically, Skye.” He soothed, running his hand down her arm. “How far along would you have to be to feel that much pain?”
“I don’t know.”
“Far enough along to be having cravings, mood swings and an increased sex drive.” He said with utter surety.
Skye looked at him suddenly. “If you knew I was pregnant, why did you pretend you didn’t?”
“I didn’t until I noticed where the blood was coming from. Then I pieced the parts together.” Grant chuckled at his own obliviousness. Skye didn’t laugh, just looking at him sadly. “Skye, I would estimate you were almost a month along–”
“How could you be so sure?”
“S.H.I.E.L.D. sent me on some missions that ended up with me having to assist a pregnant woman in some way. They were usually much more along than you were, so you weren’t as obvious to me.” Skye nodded at his explanation and settled back into his arms.
“You were pretty sure about when I got pregnant.” She mumbled after a minute.
“Well, I’m basing it on the one time we didn’t use a condom, so…about four weeks ago?”
Skye laughed with him, snuggling her face into the crook of his neck. “But why didn’t my birth control work?”
Grant didn’t know how to answer that. “Ask Simmons?” he said in a confused voice. Skye giggled and pressed her lips against his neck, pushing him backwards until he was lying on the bed. “You know I’m not gonna give up, right?”
“Give up what?” Skye asked as she moved so she was straddling his hips.
“Us having a baby. It took a month’s worth of blowing up bases to miscarry, so we’ll be a lot more gentle the next time around, okay?” he smiled at her, not wanting her to give up hope.
Thankfully, she smiled back. “You want a next time?”
“Sure.” Grant slid his arms down her back and teasingly squeezed her backside. “Just…maybe not when we’re about to run all over the world, yeah?” Smiling, Skye nodded. She leaned forward and kissed him, then pulled back to lay on his chest.
“When can we go see my dad?”
“We can leave tomorrow if you want.” He felt her nod against his chest.
“Yes, please.”
A knock on his office door jolted Coulson to awareness.
“Come on in.” he called, fighting off a yawn. May stepped into his office and he gave up even pretending to be more than half-asleep.
“Sleeping at your desk again?”
“Mph.” he grunted, slumping back into his seat.
“You’re going to want to be awake for this one, Phil.” May sat down on the edge of his desk and her words grabbed the Director’s attention. “We found the locations of the weapons that Garrett broke out of the Fridge.”
“How?” Coulson was flabbergasted.
“Skye and Ward. Skye found a way to use the Trojan horse that Hydra left imbedded in their systems. She got everything.”
“…everything?”
“Yup. And, she’s encrypted it so that no one else outside of this base can access it. Except for her.”
“Won’t Hydra be looking for it?” Coulson sat up straighter, much more awake.
“Maybe, if Skye wiped their database while she was in there. But she’s completely hidden it from their sight.”
Coulson grinned like a child given candy. “Finally, some good news.” Standing up, he subtly hinted for May to do the same. “Get teams ready. We need to strike as soon as possible.”
“Copy that.” May replied, walking out of the office with a small smile.
Grant found himself nearly wanting to pull his hair out of his head. Skye was fussing way beyond normal, and was rushing around the house, quadruple-checking everything.
“Ugh, Skye! I’ve already packed everything! Let’s go!” he called out to her while she was in their bedroom.
“I’m just making sure we’ve got everything!” she shouted back. “I mean, it’s not like we’re coming back here, right?”
Grant threw his hands up in frustration. “Checking once is fine! Four times is way over the top!”
“I’m coming, I’m coming!” Skye grumbled, finally moving into view and exiting the house. Grant breathed a sigh of relief and locked the door, following her to the car.
“Did you do that when you left the orphanage?” he asked rudely as he slid into the driver’s seat. Skye gave a gasp of indignation and hit him. “Hey!”
“That was uncalled for!”
“You’re the one who took so long!”
“That’s because I didn’t want to forget anything!”
Grant bit back his next argument. Skye’s demeanour was stiff, tears threatening to fall again and she held her chin high, her jaw clenched. “I’m sorry. That was rude of me.”
“Apology accepted. Can we go?”
Withholding a sigh, Grant put the car into gear and drove away from the house on the hill. There was going to be lot of grovelling to get in her good books again.